Rev. Jesse Jackson on Crime

Civil Rights Activist

Co-authored "Legal Lynching: Racism, & the Death Penalty"

Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. began service in the US House of Representatives on December 12, 1995. Rep. Jackson currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee. In 1996, he co-authored "Legal Lynching:
Racism, Injustice and the Death Penalty" with his father, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and in 1999 they co-authored a highly successful book on personal and family finance entitled "It's About the Money."

Protested Texas execution of Gary Graham

Jackson’s quest for “social justice” took him to the Houston funeral of the late Gary Graham, a convicted murderer and career criminal who was recently executed. After witnessing Graham’s execution, Jackson offered a eulogy at the memorial service
for the murderer, who had embraced militant black separatism and given himself the name Shaka Sankofa. Jackson extolled Graham/Shaka as a saint and martyr. “Texas can’t kill the spirit,” Jackson said. “We must pick up the baton where Shaka has left it.”

More African-American parolees than graduates

Those who appeal to our fears instead of our hopes have a vision that, by the year 2000, would have more parolees than graduates. Presently 650,000 African-Americans are in jail, slightly over half the nation’s prison population. Only 520,000 are in
college, and the gap is growing. Is this the way we want America to go?

Here is another alarming fact. The number one growth industry in urban America is jails. Half of all public housing built in the last ten years has been jails. America has
the largest prison population in the world-1.4 million people. Is this where we really want to go?

Small towns are now offering prison officials memberships in country clubs and other perks, because they now want to get a jail
in their district, because new jobs are created. It seems that the idea of a “jail-industrial complex” making our schools secondary is not really the great hope and promise of America. Somebody must speak out. I declare I am going to do it today.

4 Balls, not 3 Strikes

[Conservatives] have a quick answer, “Three strikes and you’re out,” rather than “Four balls and you’re on.” If the crime is vicious enough, one strike is enough. For those who bombed the building in Oklahoma, one strike is enough.

The vision
for the cities must be “four balls and you’re on.” Prenatal care and Head Start, ball one. An adequately funded public education, ball two. Marketable skill and access to college, ball three. A job, ball four. Let’s lift our children up, not lock them up